Give a Boy a Gun
The fictional creation “Give a Boy a Gun” was
written by Tods Strasser based on the Columbine High School massacre which took
place on the 20th April 1999. In this massacre two students killed
13 people, wounded 21 people and committed suicide afterwards. The storyline
consists of quotations of witnesses and other means of evidence.
Generally I think that the book tries to handle
a very important topic in a way that is easy to understand, so I think the book
is quite good. Although there are two things I would change: Firstly I would
write the book in the form of a novel, or I would write the names of the
persons who are talking on top of the paragraph and not on the bottom, because
sometimes that is quite confusing. You assume who is talking, when suddenly
something totally weird happens, which wouldn´t be weird if it happened to the
right person, then as you read on you find out that you only pictured the wrong
person talking, which is quite annoying and even shocking sometimes. Secondly I
would remove the “Suicide notes” from the book, because I find them quite
macabre and indelicate, even though they are made up.
Brendan Lawlor and Gary Searle both visit Middletown high school and are
the victims of constant bullying. While Gary has been living in town since his
birth, Brendan moved there when he was visiting seventh grade. Until eighth
grade they are not really aware of each other, but as soon as they meet up they
become very close friends. They both hate the popular students, which basically
are the football players and the cheerleaders. It seems that unpopular and not
athletic students are worth less than popular and athletic students, which are
allowed to do everything they want, such as bullying unpopular students. At
least that´s the point of view Brendan, Gary, and their friends. As time passes
they gradually get fed up by the indignities which are done to them.
At first Brendan starts to develop a darker side, but then also Gary
becomes sicker and sicker of all the bullying and laughter about them. They
constantly think about suicide and about killing all their tantalizers as an
act of revenge. Gary´s girlfriend Allison and Gary´s and Brendan´s close friend
Ryan, which also are outsiders, both think that the thoughts and deeds are not
meant serious.
Time keeps on passing and the two boys start to collect information and
practical experiences with guns and bombs. Ryan and Allison still don´t believe
that they are serious about all that and in addition to that they start to get
into a struggle with overwhelming indifference. Even when Gary builds a bomb
and tests it with them in the forest, they still are not able to see their
motivation, or they are too careless and weak to take any measures against
their evil plot.
One day a school dance takes place, which is the perfect chance for their
rampage. They booby trap the exits of the gym, where the dace takes place, and
take an armed assault on the teachers and students inside. They tie them up and
start to torture their nemesis Sam Flach, a football player who has done the
most harm to them. The situation tensions up more and more until the final escalation.
In one of the key scenes in the book Gary
despairs completely and commits suicide. In the meantime some of the hostages
were able to untie themselves and a football player stands up, runs over to
Brendan, which watches Gary die, tackles him and holds him, so he can do no
harm to anyone no more. Now a group of students walks over to them tears the
football player off Brendan. Then they start hitting Brendan until a teacher
stops them. In my eyes this is scene shows the pure irrational insanity
inconsiderateness and the desire to self-administered justice of human beings.
In fact they do the exactly same thing to Brendan, which he did to them seconds
before. They take revenge for the indignities, done to them, by punishing
Brendan in a way which is as cruel as the indignities that happened to them
before. Then again these indignities were an act of revenge for indignities
that were done to Brendan by the students. As you can see this whole problem is
a vicious circle of ruin. Wouldn´t it be enough to take Brendan to court and to
punish according to the law? Shouldn´t we ask ourselves why all this happened
in the first place, and how we can avoid such acts of desperation in the
future, instead of falling into an infinite rage of revenge? Shouldn´t we start
being aware of our deeds and their consequences? I think these are questions
which everyone of us should ask him- or herself.
According to the instructions I should write
about my favourite our about my least favourite character in the book, but in
my opinion there is nobody in the book which you could call a “favourite
character” or a character which you could hate. They all have their problems, they
all have their negative sides; I even think that all of them have their
positive sides. The problem is that they can´t figure out that they have to
work together to solve their problems. They always think it´s someone else´s
fault and they think it is impossible that it is their own fault, at least a
part of it. As you can see there is no single person you can hate, it´s the
whole system you have to hate, the whole mankind. There is no reason for us to
treat each other like shit, there is no reason to hurt each other and there is
no reason to kill each other but still we do it. So if there is one thing we
can learn from this book then it is that we have to start to work together and
to communicate to solve our problems. We have to start to think and to act in a
more meaningful and respectful way.
